The Decline And Fall Of The American Empire

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Half of U.S. Lives in Household Getting Benefit

49.1%: Percent of the population that lives in a household where at least one member received some type of government benefit in the first quarter of 2011.

Cutting government spending is no easy task, and it’s made more complicated by recentCensus Bureau data showing that nearly half of the people in the U.S. live in a household that receives at least one government benefit, and many likely received more than one.

The 49.1% of the population in a household that gets benefits is up from 30% in the early 1980s and 44.4% as recently as the third quarter of 2008.

The increase in recent years is likely due in large part to the lingering effects of the recession. As of early 2011, 15% of people lived in a household that received food stamps, 26% had someone enrolled in Medicaid and 2% had a member receiving unemployment benefits. Families doubling up to save money or pool expenses also is likely leading to more multigenerational households. But even without the effects of the recession, there would be a larger reliance on government.

The Census data show that 16% of the population lives in a household where at least one member receives Social Security and 15% receive or live with someone who gets Medicare. There is likely a lot of overlap, since Social Security and Medicare tend to go hand in hand, but those percentages also are likely to increase as the Baby Boom generation ages.

With increased government spending comes the need to pay for it, and if taxes aren’t going to increase that means deficits. Nearly three-quarters of Americans blame the U.S. budget deficit on spending too much money on federal programs, according to aGallup poll last year, but when the conversation turns to which programs to cut, the majorities are harder to find. For example, 56% of respondents oppose making significant changes to Social Security or Medicare.

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Question is, how long is the ‘other’ [working] 50% going to be willing to ‘carry’ the ‘other’ [not working dependent] 50% ?? It’s coming down to the wire… the ‘we’ve got to help each other ‘rhetoric’ is going to sour quickly…. When is enough, enough? When is the cycle going to be broken?

Johngalt had a lot to say on another post here at FA recently and he was very angry…and I cannot say I blame him in the least…

…as I have a bitter taste in my mouth with our pansy politicians and Government in general, their not being able to say ‘no’…..their not being able to keep their hands off of taxpayer money by keeping it where it belongs…. SS was raided time and again and you are a fool not to believe that…the Government spends taxpayer money with abhorrent waste and not a second thought….[about the hardworking people from whom that same tax money comes from…]

I have a bitter taste in my mouth with the Democratic/Liberal Ideology and the policies that go with that same [lets ‘save’ everyone and feel good doing it] ideology which has lead us to this point of dependency…and the Republicans are no better…. Ahem, there comes a time when people need to save/help themselves….

Recently stories have come out about people who ‘collect’ welfare etc… the 20 something girl and 60 something guy who won the lottery and was ‘still’ collecting welfare from the Gov’t Taxpayers….The video here at FA where the ‘young’ able bodied girl was boasting about ‘living’ off the Government Taxpayer….how many more people are “scamming the system” this way??? How about medicaid/medicare fraud? Fraud!?!

I do not say the following without the knowledge of knowing how bad the economy is right now and the many people who because of the economy need the help…but why doesn’t the Government do away with several insignificant Government agencies and get an competent ‘private sector’ company to track people on government Taxpayer welfare and ensure they get off welfare and get on the right path to self-sufficiency???… It’s called checks and balances – And Please, don’t leave it to another ‘Government agency’ or nothing will get done [as usual].

….hell the Barry Administration hired another 20,000 IRS Agents to “insure” the Government ‘gets their tax money’ !!! from the very people who pay for [I’m talking system scammers here] people’s existence….and I do not speak of those American Citizens in our society who really really really do need help….

The middle class Taxpayers have bills and debt too….and THEY are certainly feeling the effects of the economy, and even more so the effects of the ‘growing’ Government Taxpayer dependency!!

The middle class now “has” to change their life style they “worked hard for” to ensure someone has their dependency life style…. Thanks Barry and Washington’s incompetent politics….

What they need to do is take those 20,000 workers and get them busy on digging-up and reporting on government fraud, waste & abuse.

One problem I have with the info is that it says 16% of the people live in a household that receives Social Security. How can anyone figure that is receiving government assistance when I was FORCED to pay into it all of my working life, and I ain’t going to get back nearly as much as I have paid into it? If I would have paid the same amount into a Wroth IRE, there would be several million dollars in my retirement account.

Ways to fix Social Security:
(1) Put it back into a separate INTEREST DRAWING account like it was when it was started.
(2) Pay out only to those who pay in.
(3) Slowly switch over and let people put a percentage of their SS money in an individual retirement account like Bush wanted. Eventually, they will be putting all of their money in such an account, and the government won’t have to spend anything for a person’s retirement. Bush wanted to allow 10% of the SS withholding to go into a personal account. I am guessing that that money would wind up a lot more than the 90% that would go into SS. The politicians won’t allow this, because that is too much money that they won’t have control over to hand out to people to buy votes.

The republicans and democrats have had the congress and the white house, and could have fixed things, but neither one did. This is why I say we no longer have a two party government. It is one party with two branches.

CURT
HI,
I GUESS it also mean that the currency of the federal bank has
change into stamps for half of the NATION,
IT IS A COMMUNIST TRICK TO ENTITLE THE PEOPLE IN THAT NEW CURRENCY, making them believe the benevolence come from the GOVERNMENT, WHEN IT’S ON THE PEOPLE WORKING THEIR BUTTS OF TO PAY FOR IT,
IS IN IT NOW MATCHING AND devalue THE REAL GOLD VALUE AS ALSO THE MONEY IN PAPER.
THAT tell us unequivocal that they take it from the poor pensioners to give it to anyone else who cross the border,
hell they even advertize it, what if there is a big scam at the top, when those stamps come back to the FEDERAL BANK TO BE CHANGE INTO REAL MONEY PAPER?
WE WOULD NEVER KNOW WOULD WE?
WHO IS CHECKING THE FEDS BANK? NO ONE,
AND WITH ALL THE ABUSE WE FIND IN GOVERNMENT NOW,
WE NEVER HEARD OF THE ROUTE UPWARD OF THOSE STAMPS,
WE ONLY KNOW OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF IT JUST BARELY KNOW,